Syria is forced to expel Palestinian extremists By Toby Harnden in Beirut, Damien McElroy in Damascus (Filed: 06/03/2005) Syria has bowed to international pressure over its support for Iraq's insurgency and attacks against Israel by ordering the leaders of two extremist Palestinian groups to leave the country. Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Gaza-based Hamas, and Ramadan Shallah, the head of the Damascus branch of Islamic Jihad, which was behind a recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, have been forced to move from Syria to other Arab countries. "They have gone, and they have told me that they have gone," Khaled Fahum, the veteran head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Damascus, told The Telegraph. Meshaal had left for Qatar, while Shallah was being sheltered by Hizbollah in Lebanon, he said. "The government has closed their offices, cut off their phones and shut down their email," said Mr Fahum. "I know this from both sides." The two departed leaders are implacably opposed to the Palestinian ceasefire in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. President George W Bush has called repeatedly on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to stop backing "terrorist" groups in Iraq and the occupied territories. Shallah's flight to Lebanon, however, will heighten concern over Syria's influence on its tiny neighbour and worries over Mr Assad's closeness to Hizbollah. Listed by America as one of the world's most dangerous terrorist groups but hailed by many Arabs as a heroic resistance movement that defeated Israel in southern Lebanon in 1996, Hizbollah - "the Party of God" - is backed by Syria and Iran. Last week, in an unprecedented move, leading members of Hizbollah joined the international chorus calling on Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon - the central demand of anti-Syrian protesters in Martyrs' Square in Beirut. Abdallah Kassir, one of nine Hizbollah members in the Beirut parliament, told The Sunday Telegraph that it was time for Syrian troops to depart "with honour", under the terms of the 1989 Taif agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war. "The implementation of the Taif agreement is the best and only logical way out of this," he said at his party's headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs. "But the troops should leave according to an agreed timetable. "Any withdrawal by Syria as a result of force will put Lebanon in danger. "It would also be wrong because it would be an insult to Syria, which entered Lebanon [in 1976] to protect the Christians and to end civil strife." Syria's 15,000 soldiers in Lebanon have become the focus of popular protests sparked by the killing of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, when a large bomb exploded on St Valentine's Day in Beirut. The White House and many Lebanese accuse Damascus of being behind the outrage. Hizbollah's intervention appeared designed to protect Syria, its ally, from long-term damage over the issue. The organisation is also anxious to stave off implementation of last year's United Nations resolution 1559, backed by the United States, France and Britain, which called for foreign forces to leave Lebanon and for militias, including Hizbollah, to be disbanded. Under the Taif agreement Damascus was supposed to redeploy its troops to the western Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border, and then negotiate a timetable for full withdrawal from Lebanon. Mr Assad announced last night that troops would be pulled back to the Bekaa Valley - a sign that Damascus may be heeding Hizbollah's advice. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, whose book, Hizbollah: Politics and Religion, is regarded as the authoritative study of the organisation, said: "As the strongest of Syria's regional allies, Hizbollah can encourage Syria to do what is best for Syria. Syria will continue to support Hizbollah, which is rendered even stronger by this and gains a lot of credibility." Israel has presented foreign diplomats with a transcript of an intercepted call allegedly made by Shallah to an Islamic Jihad cell on the West Bank authorising the Tel Aviv attack, which killed five Israelis. The Islamic Jihad office in the Yarmouk Camp area of Damascus, home to tens of thousands of Palestinians, was locked and abandoned last week. A solitary agent of the Syrian security service manned a makeshift cigarette stall at the corner of the building. A Palestinian youth who guided The Telegraph to the office vented his anger at the decision to close it down. "It is wrong to shut this place," he said. "Many poor people depended on it for welfare payments to feed their families. But it will not stop our willingness to volunteer for martyrdom. I will always support jihad [holy war] in our land." 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